Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Dumb vivisectors

I've mentioned many times how cruel, dull, insensitive, distrustful, and contriving I find members of the vivisection industry to be. I've mentioned UW-Madison's Harlow Lab director Chris Coe by name a couple times. See for instance The Biology of Iron and Christopher Coe on Res 35. Or, just stick "Coe" into the little search window at the top of the page in the upper left. But I'm going to have to add gullible to my list of descriptive adjectives.

Regular readers may recall that UW-Madison successfully derailed an effort to encourage public involvement in a consideration of the ethics of using monkeys in its research programs. A key component of this deflection of public scrutiny was the promise they made to the Dane County Board of Supervisors to hold a series of public forums that would adequately answer any questions that the public might have about the university's use of animals. (I summarize and paraphrase here; for more, read: "Forum" Keeps Details Hidden.)

The forums have been a sham but they have nevertheless fooled even those they are meant to shield. The most recent forum featured a presentation by Andrew Rowan of the Humane Society of the United States. He gave an interesting talk, but had no specific knowledge about anything having to do with the university's use of animals.

Here's the silly connection with Coe: When he heard that Rowan was coming he sent the members of the forum committee information that he claimed exposed HSUS for what it really is. His information about HSUS was Rick Berman's industry-funded HumaneWatch.org. Really? So much for critical thinking.